Thanks to the amazing people who make up the TechWhirl community, we go from the sublime to the sublime in content and conversation. Highlights of interesting and just plain useful sessions from LavaCon 2013, and the debut of Useless Assistance from Edward Smyda-Homa mark another week of great content on TechWhirl. Conversations on the community forums and email discussion list run the gamut of lively debate around “content engineering,” and more classic topics such as using screenshots in documentation, moving to a manager role, and dealing with authors who can’t write. And there’s always room for another viewpoint, so jump into the fray.
Immerse, interact and enjoy—that’s what we’re here for.
Have a sublime weekend!
-Connie and the gang at TechWhirl
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Tech Writer This Week for November 14, 2013Every week the space cadets in the control room go out looking for intelligent posts on technical communication, customer experience management and content management. We find them, review them and put them on display for you. |
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Google Glass is Here! What’s Real, What’s Hype, and What’s Just CoolAs the wannabe uber-nerd that I am, I’ve been following Project Glass and all the cool augmented reality possibilities that come with it since it was first announced a couple of years ago. As a Google Glass explorer, Marta Rauch is one of the few people out there who have first-hand experience with Google Glass and one of the few who can realistically speak to its features, apps, user experience, and augmented reality possibilities. |
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Useless Assistance: A Window View on FrustrationI have possibly the most interesting window view in the tech comm world. From the comfort of my own swivel chair up on the second floor I have a first-hand, birds-eye view on the frustration people experience with poorly prepared instructions – looks of confusion, irritation, and panic, hands flailing in the air, heated conversations, and the abandoning of manuals to the perils of the wind. |
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Using a Gamification Design Framework to Gamify Products and Improve Reception“Gamification” is all the rage in business, training, and social networking. Marta Rauch, who currently works as Senior Principal Information Developer, Lead, Mobile, Cloud, Gamification at Oracle, recommends starting with a design framework to ensure gamification projects provide meaning to players and business value to companies. |
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